New research reveals that supermassive black holes consume surrounding material faster than previously believed. This insight, derived from high-resolution simulations, could explain why quasars flare and fade so quickly. A new Northwestern University-led study is changing the way astrophysicists
A new study shows that, by dragging space-time, supermassive black holes can rip apart the violent whirlpool of debris that encircle them, resulting in an inner and outer subdisk. Credit: Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University
This new finding could help explain the dramatic behavior of some of the brightest objects in the night sky, includingThis still from a simulation shows how a supermassive black hole’s accretion disk can rip into two subdisks, which are misaligned in this image. Credit: Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University
Previous researchers have mistakenly assumed that accretion disks are relatively orderly. In these models, gas and particles swirl around the— in the same plane as the black hole and in the same direction of the black hole’s spin. Then, over a time scale of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years, gas particles gradually spiral into the black hole to feed it.
“Black holes are extreme general relativistic objects that affect space-time around them,” Kaaz said. “So, when they rotate, they drag the space around them like a giant carousel and force it to rotate as well — a phenomenon called ‘frame-dragging.’ This creates a really strong effect close to the black hole that becomes increasingly weaker farther away.”
“When the inner disk tears off, it will precess independently,” Kaaz said. “It precesses faster because it’s closer to the black hole and because it’s small, so it’s easier to move.”According to the new simulation, the tearing region — where the inner and outer subdisks disconnect — is where the feeding frenzy truly begins. While friction tries to keep the disk together, the twisting of space-time by the spinning black hole wants to rip it apart.
Although classical theory has posed assumptions for how quickly accretion disks evolve and change brightness, observations of changing-look quasars indicate that they actually evolve much, much faster.
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